Prehistoric pottery used to serve mainly, almost exclusively, simple everyday needs. It is rarely transported beyond tribal/cultural boundaries over large distances. The fineware of artistic beauty and high craftsmanship of the Middle Neolithic Bükk culture could be an exception to that rule, since the known distribution of the Bükk culture fine pottery extends far over the territory occupied by the cultural group.

Our investigations focused on some basic questions of fine Bükk pottery. The subjects of the research were ceramic finds and comparative raw material samples from some important sites of the Bükk culture (Aggtelek- Baradla cave, Borsod (Edelény)-Derékegyháza, Felsővadász-Várdomb and Sajószentpéter-Kövecses). Our aim was to find out whether special raw materials were selected and/or individual recipes were applied for the production of fine Bükk pottery, and if it is possible to fingerprint Bükk wares by archaeometrical methods, which will be of essential help in the study of Bükk 'exports', established by stylistic/archaeological methods. The framework of the archaeometrical study involved polarising microscopic petrographic observations, mineralogical characterisation by XRD method and instrumental geochemical investigation using XRF.

Although the investigated sample collection was limited and covered only few sites, our research yielded the first archaeometrical data on high quality Bükk finewares. It became clear that the representative fine ceramic fragments can be clearly distinguished from both the coarser ware and some of the comparative local sediments. In addition, the complete fine-ware collection shows inhomogeneity (two quality types) concerning its raw material. The results of our complex petro-mineralogical and geochemical investigation provided basic knowledge for the further archaeometrical research of Bükk finewares. In addition, it is very probable that the determination of the provenance and the description of the making technology can be possible